Billable Hours: UpCounsel’s Series A

For a small business, independent contractor, or entrepreneur, it doesn’t make sense to use a large law firm with fat, billable hours. On the flip side, lawyers don’t need to worry about partner structures and can make more money while working the hours they’d like.

I’m proud to announce today that UpCounsel has closed a $10 million series A round led by Menlo Ventures. We’re also joining the round and increasing our investment in the company. I’ll be joining the company’s board as well. We’re very bullish on the future of work, and UpCounsel’s approach in particular.

More and more businesses have signed onto the platform, realizing that in many cases from small to medium sized businesses traditional law firms aren’t necessarily for the bulk of their work. UpCounsel’s top 10 attorneys have made more than $1 million in aggregate and it has quickly become a viable alternative to the traditional legal career path.

What’s been really interesting to see is what is at its core a marketplace, has quickly started to look much like a SaaS platform as well. As UpCounsel locks in more customers and adds more attorneys to the platform, there is a stickiness that is characterized by the tools provided by the UpCounsel platform to maximize attorneys’ time and earnings potential.

There’s a still lot of work left to do but UpCounsel is well on their way to redefining how businesses view legal services in the future. Congratulations to Matt, Mason and the rest of the team as they continue to build out their massive 100,000 ft vision while maintaining their day to day street-level grit. We couldn’t be more excited to be involved in a company that is well positioned to transform legal services in the freelance economy.